Reaching the Lost...

Urgent: The harvest is ripe the workers are few!!! Matthew 9:37

Dear Friends and Family,

I want to take this time to update you on some important circumstances in our ministries that need immediate prayer and financial attention.

Most of you are aware that we have ministries in Africa. Tonya is one of our missionaries that we sent out from The Mission and is one of the ministries that we support. She lives in Uganda and has been given the opportunity to minister to the Karamojong (an unreached people group) and street children.

Tonya has been facing some trials in the last month or so. It has been hard to send out updates for prayer, because her circumstances change sometimes minute to minute. I think now is a great time to try and update you while there are some things that need immediate prayer and financial attention.

First I will give you some back ground. Tonya has 5 children. 1 biological, 1 adopted and 3 foster children. The African tribe called the Karamojong live in Masses, near Tonya. That is not where they are originally from, but they venture out of their home town of Moroto, to the towns to beg, and earn money.

I am stilling learning about the Karamojong, and don’t want to tell you information that is not true, so I will be vague. The Karamojong are not highly regarded are not liked and looked down upon in Uganda. They also, believe that they own the cattle in all of Uganda, so they steal, pillage. They are sometimes a violent people.

Most of the Karamojong do not work. When they don’t have cattle, the women take their kids to the streets of Kampala to beg. The children are left by themselves to walk up to 15 miles a day, sometimes with a baby on their back, begging for money and food. If the children can’t make the long walk home to the slums, they sleep in store fronts, alone.

This is the story of thousands of lives, including Phillip and Angela. Phillip and Angela were picked up by the police, off of the street for begging and taken into custody.

Tonya finally was able to take in Phillip and Angela to care for them. They have been on the streets for most of their lives, or in custody of the police. She knows that the Lord has clearly told her to advocate for these children. She was looking for the birth mom, in order to make sure there was not a birth mom looking for them. The birth mom was able to find Tonya and her children. Tonya invited the birth mom, Maria to live with them, which she did for about 24 hours. Maria brought her supposed mom, infant and 4 year old son with her. Maria took Tonya to the slums where she lives in Kampala to sign papers so Tonya could have custody. Tonya was welcomed in by the women singing and dancing and praising a foreign god, not our own Jesus. The chief of the town, invited her back to help them in the future.

After about 24 hours, Maria decided that she would take the people she came with and Phillip and Angela with her back to the streets. Tonya tried to argue with her to let them stay, but Maria insisted. When asked if the kids would go back to begging, she said “Yes!” Tonya packed their clothes and loaded them up and Phillip and Angela walked into the night in the pouring rain. This is a note I received from Tonya after the return of her children the first time. I love her words, and I must share it with you. Tonya spent a horrible night sick to her stomach and that is the reference you read in the beginning about sitting on the bath room floor;

Wow sister, that was not, not fun! But I spent a lot of time with Jesus in those moments as I laid on my bathroom floor and I praise him even when satan tries to tell me that none of this is worth it.

I prayed about the slum in Kampala with all those Karamojong brothers and sisters. I was thinking that their rent is $2 a month and their food is no more than $2 a day. The kids are the ones who work, not the parents. But for them there is no other way.... BUT THERE IS.... JESUS!

I am praying in many moments a day about THE MISSION MASESE and about that slum in Kampala. My heart is forever tied to these people because that is what God did through my precious Philip and Angela. They asked me for help as they thanked me for the kids, and that, I believe, was God opening the widow to heaven.

I need help sister. I am but one woman with these huge tasks on my heart. The letterhead paper that the village persons wrote the letter on for me to care for Phillip and Angela says, "Together we can make a difference". I can't stop thinking about that and how with Jesus and just small, small resources we can change the lives of these people who feel so outcast yet God holds in his highest regard.

I remember reading a post that Gwen from 147 million orphans wrote after a visit last year to Masese1 where the Karamojong live that they work with. She said it was different, because when they pulled up there were not kids begging! I pray for the day we drive down Jinja road, the same path that my dear Philip walked with his little sister strapped to his back, to find no Karamojong children on that road working. I know I can pray that prayer with confidence because surely that is God's wish too. He wants justice.... OCEANS of it. He wants fairness.... RIVERS of it. Let us not yearn for the things of this world, but for JUSTICE and FAIRNESS as it is written by THE ONE we claim to know and love so dearly.

These past few days I have found myself homesick. I thought it was for AZ and all the people I love so and miss so dearly, but this morning I realized it was for heaven and the arms of Jesus..... whew, I get chills just thinking about that day. I love you. Come quickly, praying for God to make the path so clear and for his provision for every single need. XO from UG my dearest friend. Oh how I love you and long for the day that we serve his people together, arms linked and in community!

Please understand that the primary concern is for the children. Tonya’s heart is wrapped around these kids, but the heart ache comes when she knows that they are unwanted and are going to be living in conditions that are not suitable for a child. It is hard to imagine, that Angela was once in a warm bed receiving the medication she needs for her TB and now is living in the slum with no food to eat, facing a life of danger in the streets, with a mom she doesn’t know and a language she doesn’t speak.

We have been praying for the Lord to advocate on behalf of these kids and today, God is working miracles! Today Tonya is on their way to pick up her kids BY THE GRACE OF GOD!

This is just in from Tonya, via text:

“I have them, only by a miracle. I think Angela is drunk with alcohol and has a broken leg. They are in the same clothes and looks like they have not bathed. They are weak and limp, please pray.”

“Angela is drunk!! Phillip just told me they have no mattress, and slept on the dirt floor. She knew me and cried and them came back and won’t let anyone near her. She is gyrating and I think someone must have hurt her. We are going to the hospital.”

“Please, we pray we need God to keep showing up.”

Friends, here is the situation. Tonya NEEDS money. Most of you know that she doesn’t not have much support. She stepped out and trusted God for her circumstances. She needs money and support. It will cost money for the hospital and the paper work for the police. On top of that she trust that the Lord will supply all of her needs for food. They are going on faith right now.

It takes a lot of money to serve these kids, and their families.

Please pray and ask the Lord how he wants you to give right now. You can contact me directly if you can donate to Tonya and these beautiful kids, we can get it to her ASAP. Your donations are tax deductible, through Remember The Poor.

If you click here, you go right to the donation page:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=HVaKEdaLqPP6sHnzSMaMQWb9wMX8-yz-zj83LSxXlv6tZH405ZesIA_U6_e&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d9384d85353843a619606282818e091d0
Please include a note in your donation that specifies “Tonya, Uganda.”

Finally, friends, pray for the lost and dying world in Africa and the nations. These people need Jesus and discipleship. They are in desperate need of a Savior, until that time, nothing is going to change. The harvest is ripe, the workers are few! The Karamojong are an unreached, possible unengaged people group. There are no known churches among them. We are praying for the Lord to show us how to reach them. This is what the Lord has commanded us to do! Pray for him to make our path clear and to begin to soften the hearts of the Karamojong to accept His truths.

“Ministry that costs nothing, accomplishes nothing.” John Henry Jowett

Blessings,
Drea